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Bible Trivia: The Gospels — printable

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Bible Trivia: The Gospels — printable

Name: ______________________________ Date: ____________ Score: ______

  1. 1. Which Gospel opens with the words “In the beginning was the Word”? Easy

    1. A Mark
    2. B John
    3. C Matthew
    4. D Luke

  2. 2. Who baptises Jesus in the Jordan? Easy

    1. A Peter
    2. B Andrew
    3. C Zechariah
    4. D John the Baptist

  3. 3. Which disciple denies Jesus three times before the cock crows? Easy

    1. A Peter
    2. B Judas Iscariot
    3. C Thomas
    4. D James

  4. 4. Which two Gospels contain an account of Jesus’ birth? Easy

    1. A Mark and John
    2. B Matthew and Mark
    3. C Matthew and Luke
    4. D Luke and John

  5. 5. Which Gospel is addressed to a man named Theophilus? Medium

    1. A John
    2. B Matthew
    3. C Mark
    4. D Luke

  6. 6. Which Gospel traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam? Medium

    1. A Matthew
    2. B Luke
    3. C Mark
    4. D John

  7. 7. Which Gospel contains the Sermon on the Mount? Medium

    1. A Luke
    2. B Mark
    3. C Matthew
    4. D John

  8. 8. Which of the four Gospels is the shortest? Medium

    1. A Mark
    2. B John
    3. C Luke
    4. D Matthew

  9. 9. Which Gospel places the cleansing of the temple at the start of Jesus’ ministry rather than in the final week? Hard

    1. A Mark
    2. B Luke
    3. C John
    4. D Matthew

  10. 10. Which Gospel dates Jesus’ birth to a census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria? Hard

    1. A Luke
    2. B Matthew
    3. C Mark
    4. D John

  11. 11. Which Gospel names Malchus, the high priest’s servant whose ear is cut off at the arrest? Hard

    1. A Luke
    2. B Mark
    3. C Matthew
    4. D John

  12. 12. At the crucifixion, which Gospel has the centurion call Jesus a righteous man rather than the Son of God? Hard

    1. A Mark
    2. B Luke
    3. C Matthew
    4. D John

Answer key — teacher’s sheet

Print pages separately: hand out the worksheet, keep this one.

  1. 1. B — John

    John 1:1. Mark is the usual wrong answer, because it opens 'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ' — a similar first word doing completely different work. John's opening deliberately echoes Genesis 1:1 and places its subject before creation rather than at a point in a narrative.

  2. 2. D — John the Baptist

    Mark 1:9, with parallels at Matthew 3:13–17 and Luke 3:21–22. Zechariah is the Baptist's father in Luke 1, which is where that confusion usually starts. Peter and Andrew are not present; in John's account they come to Jesus afterwards, from among the Baptist's own followers.

  3. 3. A — Peter

    Mark 14:66–72, with the prediction at 14:30. Peter denies knowing him three times in the high priest's courtyard and then remembers the words. Judas betrays rather than denies, and every Gospel that reports both keeps them as distinct acts by distinct men.

  4. 4. C — Matthew and Luke

    Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2, and the two accounts share very little: Matthew has the magi, the star and the flight to Egypt, Luke the shepherds, the manger and the census. Mark begins at the Jordan with an adult Jesus, and John begins before creation — neither has a nativity at all.

  5. 5. D — Luke

    Luke 1:3 addresses 'most excellent Theophilus', and Acts 1:1 opens by addressing the same man and referring back to a former book. That pair of addresses is the main textual link between the two, and the reason they are usually read as one work in two volumes.

  6. 6. B — Luke

    Luke 3:23–38, which runs backwards from Jesus and ends 'son of Adam, son of God'. Matthew 1:1–17 also gives a genealogy but runs forward from Abraham in three sets of fourteen. The two lists differ substantially between David and Joseph, which the texts do not explain.

  7. 7. C — Matthew

    Matthew 5–7. Luke 6:17–49 carries much of the same material but has him come down and stand on a level place, which is why that version is called the Sermon on the Plain. Same teaching, different setting — and Luke's version is markedly shorter.

  8. 8. A — Mark

    Mark, at sixteen chapters against Matthew's twenty-eight, Luke's twenty-four and John's twenty-one. John feels short because it moves through a narrow set of long scenes rather than many brief ones, but by length of text it is the longer book. Luke is the longest of the four.

  9. 9. C — John

    John 2:13–22, in the second chapter, right at the start of the ministry. Mark 11:15–19 and its parallels place the same action in the final week, days before the arrest, and treat it as part of what provokes the arrest. It is the sharpest chronological disagreement between John and the other three.

  10. 10. A — Luke

    Luke 2:1–2 anchors the birth to a census under Quirinius, governor of Syria. Matthew 2:1 anchors it instead to the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BCE, while the census Josephus describes falls in 6 CE. The gap between the two is a long-standing historical problem, not a modern invention.

  11. 11. D — John

    John 18:10, which also names Peter as the man with the sword — the only Gospel to name either. Mark, Matthew and Luke all report the wound and leave both men anonymous, and Luke alone adds that Jesus healed the ear.

  12. 12. B — Luke

    Luke 23:47 — 'certainly this man was innocent', or righteous. Mark 15:39 and Matthew 27:54 both give 'truly this man was the Son of God', and John reports no centurion's words at all. The difference is not incidental: it is one of the clearest places where Luke's emphasis diverges from Mark's.

Every question, with the answer and the reason

The interactive module above runs in a sandbox of its own, which means its text is not part of this page. So here is the whole thing in full: all 12 questions, the options as they appear, the answer, and why that answer and not the one beside it. Nothing is held back to make you play first.

Easy

These turn on something stated outright in the text. If you have read the book, you have met the answer.

  1. Which Gospel opens with the words “In the beginning was the Word”?

    • Mark
    • John — correct
    • Matthew
    • Luke

    Answer: John

    John 1:1. Mark is the usual wrong answer, because it opens 'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ' — a similar first word doing completely different work. John's opening deliberately echoes Genesis 1:1 and places its subject before creation rather than at a point in a narrative.

  2. Who baptises Jesus in the Jordan?

    • Peter
    • Andrew
    • Zechariah
    • John the Baptist — correct

    Answer: John the Baptist

    Mark 1:9, with parallels at Matthew 3:13–17 and Luke 3:21–22. Zechariah is the Baptist's father in Luke 1, which is where that confusion usually starts. Peter and Andrew are not present; in John's account they come to Jesus afterwards, from among the Baptist's own followers.

  3. Which disciple denies Jesus three times before the cock crows?

    • Peter — correct
    • Judas Iscariot
    • Thomas
    • James

    Answer: Peter

    Mark 14:66–72, with the prediction at 14:30. Peter denies knowing him three times in the high priest's courtyard and then remembers the words. Judas betrays rather than denies, and every Gospel that reports both keeps them as distinct acts by distinct men.

  4. Which two Gospels contain an account of Jesus’ birth?

    • Mark and John
    • Matthew and Mark
    • Matthew and Luke — correct
    • Luke and John

    Answer: Matthew and Luke

    Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2, and the two accounts share very little: Matthew has the magi, the star and the flight to Egypt, Luke the shepherds, the manger and the census. Mark begins at the Jordan with an adult Jesus, and John begins before creation — neither has a nativity at all.

Medium

These need a detail held in place — a name, a sequence, a number that only means something next to another number.

  1. Which Gospel is addressed to a man named Theophilus?

    • John
    • Matthew
    • Mark
    • Luke — correct

    Answer: Luke

    Luke 1:3 addresses 'most excellent Theophilus', and Acts 1:1 opens by addressing the same man and referring back to a former book. That pair of addresses is the main textual link between the two, and the reason they are usually read as one work in two volumes.

  2. Which Gospel traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam?

    • Matthew
    • Luke — correct
    • Mark
    • John

    Answer: Luke

    Luke 3:23–38, which runs backwards from Jesus and ends 'son of Adam, son of God'. Matthew 1:1–17 also gives a genealogy but runs forward from Abraham in three sets of fourteen. The two lists differ substantially between David and Joseph, which the texts do not explain.

  3. Which Gospel contains the Sermon on the Mount?

    • Luke
    • Mark
    • Matthew — correct
    • John

    Answer: Matthew

    Matthew 5–7. Luke 6:17–49 carries much of the same material but has him come down and stand on a level place, which is why that version is called the Sermon on the Plain. Same teaching, different setting — and Luke's version is markedly shorter.

  4. Which of the four Gospels is the shortest?

    • Mark — correct
    • John
    • Luke
    • Matthew

    Answer: Mark

    Mark, at sixteen chapters against Matthew's twenty-eight, Luke's twenty-four and John's twenty-one. John feels short because it moves through a narrow set of long scenes rather than many brief ones, but by length of text it is the longer book. Luke is the longest of the four.

Hard

These turn on what the evidence actually supports, which is not always what the story is remembered as saying.

  1. Which Gospel places the cleansing of the temple at the start of Jesus’ ministry rather than in the final week?

    • Mark
    • Luke
    • John — correct
    • Matthew

    Answer: John

    John 2:13–22, in the second chapter, right at the start of the ministry. Mark 11:15–19 and its parallels place the same action in the final week, days before the arrest, and treat it as part of what provokes the arrest. It is the sharpest chronological disagreement between John and the other three.

  2. Which Gospel dates Jesus’ birth to a census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria?

    • Luke — correct
    • Matthew
    • Mark
    • John

    Answer: Luke

    Luke 2:1–2 anchors the birth to a census under Quirinius, governor of Syria. Matthew 2:1 anchors it instead to the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BCE, while the census Josephus describes falls in 6 CE. The gap between the two is a long-standing historical problem, not a modern invention.

  3. Which Gospel names Malchus, the high priest’s servant whose ear is cut off at the arrest?

    • Luke
    • Mark
    • Matthew
    • John — correct

    Answer: John

    John 18:10, which also names Peter as the man with the sword — the only Gospel to name either. Mark, Matthew and Luke all report the wound and leave both men anonymous, and Luke alone adds that Jesus healed the ear.

  4. At the crucifixion, which Gospel has the centurion call Jesus a righteous man rather than the Son of God?

    • Mark
    • Luke — correct
    • Matthew
    • John

    Answer: Luke

    Luke 23:47 — 'certainly this man was innocent', or righteous. Mark 15:39 and Matthew 27:54 both give 'truly this man was the Son of God', and John reports no centurion's words at all. The difference is not incidental: it is one of the clearest places where Luke's emphasis diverges from Mark's.

What this quiz draws on

Books in play: John, Luke, Mark, Matthew. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.

Themes: Gospels and Jesus.

Answers here are drawn from the biblical text and, where an external record bears on the question, from the artefact or publication that carries it. How this site reads a text and how this site is written set out the rules, so you can check the reasoning rather than take the answer on trust.